This painting by Thomas Blackshear called "Forgiven" has been one of my all time favorites for a very long time........well, at least for as long as the painting has been in existance and I'm not really sure just how long that is to be honest.  But I know I love it for a variety of reasons.  Not only because of the name "Forgiven", which I know I am, but also because when I look at the picture of Jesus holding this man up I think of all the times that I have been weak.  So weak at times that I wasn't sure I wanted to go on.  I wasn't sure that I could go on.  But seeing this painting reminds me of all those times of weakness when it was Jesus holding me up.......all those times when I experienced first hand that "His power is made perfect in weakness."  I know because God's Word says that He'll never leave me or forsake me, that He does hold me up.  I know because His Word says that His mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness, that I can lean on Him and allow Him to hold me in His arms.  I see in this painting a picture of the prodigal, a person who did things their own way only to find out that without Jesus we can do nothing.  I look at the hammer and nails in the man's hands and realize that it's because of my weak human nature that Jesus died on a cross. And yet, in all those times that I have fallen short of the glory of God, He is still there to hold me up, still forgiving me,  and in doing so demonstrating His great unconditional love for me.

submitted by:
Maria Bloxsom